>It depends on the quality of the HR
>department or manager doing the hiring.

absolutely, hence why we hire only people with proven experience in
'our' business sector. Maybe this is why the company has bucked the
market tend and continues to return an increase in profits, or could
it be because we have far less expenditure within IT, than our
competitors, who themselves are in a slump.

I still recommend to the [few] grads we take on, to pursue
certification (not just ms celts). However the goal is not simply to
pass the meaningless celt, but rather to gain a far greater
understanding of the product(s) than that covered in the topics.
Whether they do so or not is up to them, either way they need to end
up meeting our standards not those required in order to pass these
type of simple exams.